KINGSTON >> The Daily Freeman will host a livestream video and Twitter chat interview with Kingston Superintendent of Schools Paul Padalino at 10 a.m. Tuesday to discuss the proposed $137.5 million renovation and expansion plan for Kingston High School that will go before voters Dec. 10.

School officials have said the state will reimburse the Kingston school district 60 percent of the project’s cost, which would bring the local taxpayer share to $55 million. However, these figures have yet to be approved by the state.

Under the proposed plan, the Myron J. Michael Building, a former junior high school adjacent to the Kingston High, would be demolished in the summer of 2018 at a projected cost of $1.5 million and a new bus drop-off and student entrance would be built at roughly the same location. The high school’s main building, facing Broadway, would see “heavy” renovations of 22,200 square feet and “light” renovations of 19,200 square feet.

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Another 181,400 square feet would be added to the Salzmann building directly behind the main high school building; new entrances would be created for the Kate Walton Field House next to the main building; and the Tobin/Whiston building would be demolished at a cost of $1.4 million.

Padalino has said the plan combines efforts to respond to declining enrollment districtwide by closing school buildings while recognizing that the high school, whose main building opened in 1915, is poorly equipped to handle technology and faces costly infrastructure problems.

Renovations would also bring the school into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Padalino has said.

The livestream can be accessed Tuesday morning at www.dailyfreeman.com and comments or questions can be directed to Padalino on the Freeman website or by tweeting with the hashtag #KHSplan.

About the Author

Diane Pineiro-Zucker has been a reporter at the Daily Freeman since April 2013.
Pineiro-Zucker worked as a reporter in the Freeman’s Rhinebeck bureau in the early 1980s, left to become executive editor at Taconic Newspapers in Dutchess County, and returned to the Freeman in 2010 as a copy editor. Reach the author at dpzucker@freemanonline.com
or follow Diane on Twitter: @DianeAtFreeman.